Agasti, Agastya (Sanskrit) (from aga mountain + the verbal root as to throw, cast off)

Mountain-thrower; a celebrated muni and the reputed author of a number of hymns in the Rig-Veda; he also appears in the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Agastya is said to have been born in a water jar, to have been of short stature, to have swallowed the ocean, and compelled the Vindhya Mountain to prostrate itself before him. Hence his name: mountain-thrower.

In Tamil literature, Agastya is traditionally held to have brought literature and science to Southern India and to have instructed the Dravidians in medicine, astrology, and magic arts.

Agastya is also the name of the regent Canopus (cf VP 2:8).

(See also: Agasti, Agastya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Garuda (Sanskrit) In Hindu mythology a gigantic half-man and half-bird, born from an egg brought forth by Vinata, wife of Kasyapa, the self-born sprung from time and one of the seven emanators of the world.

Symbol of the great cycle or manvantara, Garuda is also an emblem of the sun and the solar cycle. He is made coeternal with Vishnu as one aspect or manifestation of Vishnu himself, who therefore is often described as riding on Garuda as Vishnu in space and time. Garuda's son is Jatayu who in the Ramayana rushed to rescue Sita when she was carried off by Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka, but was slain in the ensuing conflict.

(See also: Garuda, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Visvamitra (Sanskrit) Friend of all; a celebrated rishi (sage), famed for his contests with the sage Vasishtha. By birth a Kshattriya of the lineage of Pururavas of the lunar dynasty, he was employed at the court of Raja Sudas of the Tritsus, as was Vasishtha. Visvamitra was constantly worsted in his struggles for supremacy over the great Brahmin Vasishtha, and determined to elevate himself to the rank of a Brahmin, which he succeeded in doing after many strenuous austerities. Many verses of the Rig-Veda are said to have been written by him, and he is also credited with authorship of a law book.

In the Ramayana, Visvamitra is stated to be a counselor of Ramachandra.

(See also: Visvamitra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Vimana (Sanskrit) A car or chariot of the gods, capable of traveling through the air. While Indian mythology speaks of the devas or gods as possessing rapid self-moving chariots or vehicles with which they traverse space, gods was often used by ancient Indians for their highly intellectual, extremely scientific forefathers of now forgotten antiquity. Thus, the vimanas which were used by the Atlanteans are spoken of as being self-moving and carrying their occupants through the air (cf SD 2:427-8).

In the Ramayana, aerial vehicles are also mentioned as being used by the rakshasas of Lanka (Ceylon); and Ravana's vimana was called Pushpaka.

(See also: Vimana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Sunasepha (Sanskrit). The Puranic "Isaac"; the son of the sage Rishika who sold him for one hundred cows to King Ambarisha, for a sacrifice and "burnt offering" to Varuna, as a substitute for the king’s son Rohita, devoted by his father to the god.

When already stretched on the altar Sunasepha is saved by Rishi Visvamitra, who calls upon his own hundred sons to take the place of the victim, and upon their refusal degrades them to the condition of Chandalas. After which the Sage teaches the victim a mantram the repetition of which brings the gods to his rescue; he then adopts Sunasepha for his elder son.

(See Ramayana.) There are different versions of this story.

(See also: Sunasepha, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Vayu (Sanskrit). Air: the god and sovereign of the air; one of the five states of matter, namely the gaseous; one of the five elements, called, as wind, Vata. The Vishnu Purana makes Vayu King of the Gandharvas.

He is the father of Hanuman, in the Ramayana. The trinity of the mystic gods in Kosmos closely related to each other, are " Agni (fire) whose place is on earth; Vayu (air, or one of the forms of Indra), whose place is in the air ; and Surya (the sun) whose place is in the air (Nirukta.) In esoteric interpretation, these three cosmic principles, correspond with the three human principles, Kama, Kama-Manas and Manas, the sun of the intellect.

(See also: Vayu, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Sunahsepha (Sanskrit) In ancient Hindu legend, for instance in the Ramayana, the son of the sage Richika, corresponding in some ways with the Hebrew Isaac. His father "sold him for one hundred cows to King Ambarisha, for a sacrifice and 'burnt offering' to Varuna, as a substitute for the kings' son Rohita, devoted by his father to the god.

When already stretched on the altar Sunasepha is saved by Rishi Visvamitra, who calls upon his own hundred sons to take the place of victim, and upon their refusal degrades them to the condition of Chandalas. After which the Sage teaches the victim a mantram the repetition of which brings the gods to his rescue; he then adopts Sunasepha for his elder son" (TG 313).

(See also: Sunahsepha, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Suryavansa (Sanskrit) [from surya sun + vansa race, lineage]

The solar race; the race or lineage whose founder was said to be descended from the sun, just as the origin of the other great lineage, the Chandravansa, was attributed to the moon. The king who founded the suryavansa, Ikshvaku, was the son of Vaivasvata-Manu who sprang from the sun; he reigned at Ayodhya at the beginning of the second or treta yuga. The two branches of the suryavansa were the dynasty of Mithila, founded by a younger son of Ikshvaku, and that of Ayodhya, in which branch the avatara Rama was born, whose exploits are recounted in the Ramayana. The Vishnu-Purana enumerates the members of the Ayodhya dynasty, which amounts to about a hundred rulers. Several Rajput tribes still claim to belong to this race.

(See also: Suryavansa, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Sita:

Sita: Wife of Rama; She plays a very important role in the Ramayana: She was kidnapped by the demon Ravana. Also called Janaki, as the daughter of Janaka. She was called Sita or 'furrow' because, reputedly, she was born out of a furrow in the earth made by Janaka during ploughing, to prepare the earth for a yajna, to pray for offspring; that is why she received the nick-name Ayoni-ja, "not born from the womb". (Sita, without ^ means "the clarity of the moonlight", whereas 'candra' of Ramacandra refers to the moon). (RRV-7c) Sita: I am Sita, which means cool, the cool Moonlight! Wife of Rama (RRV-12), Sita - Goddess Mahalakshmi Herself (RRV-17a).

(See also: Sita, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Jatayu (Sanskrit) King of the vultures, steed of Vishnu and other gods, son of Aruna and Syeni according to the Mahabharata; or son of Garuda according to the Ramayana.

Jatayu promised his aid to Rama, and when the demon-king Ravena was carrying off Rama's wife Sita, the king of birds gave pursuit, but was mortally wounded after a furious battle with Ravena. In the Puranas, when Rama's father, King Dasaratha, went to the ecliptic to recover Sita from Sani (Saturn), his chariot was consumed by a glance from Sani's eye, but Jatayu caught the falling king and saved him.

"Jatayu is, of course, the cycle of 60,000 years within the great cycle of Garuda; hence he is represented as his son, or nephew, ad libitum, since the whole meaning rests in his being placed on the line of Garuda's descendants" (SD 2:570-71). Birds have been from time immemorial the emblems of migrating and evolving monads.

(See also: Jatayu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Janaka (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root jan to be born, come forth)

A king of the Mithila dynasty reigning at Videha; grandson of Ikshvaku, founder of the solar dynasty (Suryava-nsa).

Twenty generations later, another king of the same name reigned at Videha, famed for his good works, knowledge, and sanctity, also called Siradhvaja (he of the plow-banner) for, as related in the Ramayana, when the king was preparing the ground for a sacrifice for obtaining offspring, a maiden,

Sita, sprang up ready formed from the furrow which he had made with his plow. Through his righteous life he became a Brahmin and one of the Rajarshis -- referred to in the Bagavad-Gita (ch 3). It is also related that he and his preceptor-adviser, Yajnavalkya, prepared the way for the Buddha.

Used as an adjective meaning generating, producing.

(See also: Janaka, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Amrita amrita (Sanskrit) (from a not + mrita dead from the verbal root mri to die)

Immortality; the water of life or immortality, the ambrosial drink or spiritual food of the gods. According to the Puranas, Ramayana, and Mahabharata, amrita is the elixir of life produced during the contest between the devas and asuras when churning the "milky sea" (the waters of life). It has been stolen many times, but as often recovered, and it "is still preserved carefully in devaloka" (Pur E 32).

In the Vedas, amrita is applied to the mystical soma juice, which makes a new man of the initiate and enables his spiritual nature to overcome and govern the lower elements of his nature. It is beyond any guna (quality), for it is unconditioned per se (cf SD 1:348). Mystically speaking, therefore, amrita is the "drinking" of the water of supernal wisdom and the spiritual bathing in its life-giving power. It means the rising above all the unawakened or prakritic elements of the constitution, and becoming at one with and thus living in the kosmic life-intelligence-substance.

(See also: Amrita amrita, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ananga (Sanskrit) (from an not + anga limb, member, division)

Without limbs or parts; hence bodiless, incorporeal. Name of the god Kama (Kamadeva) because as Puranic legend has it he was made bodiless by a flash from Siva's third eye when attempting to disturb Siva's life of austerity (cf also Ramayana, Balakanda 23). Siva is the patron of esotericists, and what is represented by the Eye of Siva "mystically, must be acquired by the ascetic before he becomes an adept" (SD 2:282, 615).

By extension, precisely because ananga means without limbs or parts, it is a graphic and suggestive title of all spiritual potencies, qualities, or attributes; also a title of akasa, the sky or cosmic ether, and of manas (mind). Thus not only is the god Kama bodiless, but every distinct portion of the human spiritual nature is equally so.

Anagna is also the name of the main sacred writings of the Jains.

(See also: Ananga, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Aruna (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root ri to move, rise, tend towards)

Reddish-brown, ruddy (the color of morning as opposed to the darkness of night); dawn personified, sometimes represented as the charioteer of the sun. In the Ramayana, Aruna is the father of the fabulous bird Jatayu, king of the vultures, slain by Ravana. In the Vishnu-Purana, Aruna is one of the two sons of Kasyapa by Vinata; called Suparna, he is "king of the feathered tribes, and the remorseless enemy of the serpent race" (1:21).

In Buddhist writings Aruna is the name of 1) a Kshattriya king who sired Sikhi Buddha; 2) a class of gods; 3) a naga or serpent-king; 4) a king of Potali in Assaka who, being victorious in battle against the Kalinga king, won the latter's four daughters; and 5) a pleasure ground near Anupama where the Buddha Vessabhu, a week after attaining enlightenment, delivered his first discourse.

(See also: Aruna, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Agneyastra (Sanskrit) (from agneya fiery weapon from agni fire + astra missile weapon, arrow)

Fiery weapon; one of the magic weapons used by some of the gods and heroes of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. The Vishnu-Purana (3:8) recounts that the agneyastra was given by the sage Aurva to his disciple King Sagara. A magic weapon said to have been "wielded by the adept-race (the fourth), the Atlanteans" (TG 9), and to have been built of "seven elements" (SD 2:629).

It can signify a weapon of fiery character used in physical warfare, or on a cosmic scale can denote the employment of a force of nature by an intelligent being either for offensive or defensive purposes. In archaic thought fire, in its abstract sense, is almost equivalent to spirit, and permeates the sevenfold nature of the universe.

(See also: Agneyastra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Asvamedha (Sanskrit) (from asva horse + medha the sacrifice of an animal, oblation)

The horse sacrifice; an ancient Brahmanical ceremony, going back to the Vedic period. Its greatest prominence occurred during the era described in the Asvamedhika-parva of the Mahabharata. Kings alone were permitted to perform the sacrifice, and the proponent was considered for the time being a king of kings.

A horse of particular color, selected and consecrated by ceremonies, was permitted to wander wherever it wished for a year. The king performing the sacrifice, or his representative, followed the horse with an armed escort, and every ruler of the region so entered was obligated to submit to the entering king or do battle with him. If the liberator of the horse proved successful in subjugating all the rulers encountered, he returned followed by the vanquished kings (if unsuccessful he was derided and the ceremony relinquished) and the concluding sacrifice, either actual or figurative, was performed with great celebration. The Asvamedha also is mentioned in the Ramayana.

(See also: Asvamedha, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Lanka (Sanskrit). The ancient name of the island now called Ceylon. It is also the name of a mountain in the South East of Ceylon, where, as tradition says, was a town peopled with demons named Lankapuri.

 It is described in the epic of the Ramayana as of gigantic extent and magnificence, "with seven broad moats and seven stupendous walls of stone and metal". Its foundation is attributed to Visva-Karma, who built it for Kuvera, the king of the demons, from whom it was taken by Ravana, the ravisher of Sita.

The Bhagavat Purana shows Lanka or Ceylon as primarily the summit of Mount Meru, which was broken off by Vayu, god of the wind, and hurled into the ocean. It has since become the seat of the Southern Buddhist Church, the Siamese Sect (headed at present by the High Priest Sumangala), the representation of the purest exoteric Buddhism on this side of the Himalayas.

(See also: Lanka, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Hanuman or Hanumat (Sanskrit) Monkey-god of the Ramayana. The son of Pavana, god of the winds, or spirit, Hanuman is fabled to have assumed any form at will, wielded rocks, removed mountains, mounted the air, seized the clouds, and to have rivaled Garuda in swiftness of flight.

According to the epic, Hanuman and his host of semi-human monkey-beings became the allies of Rama, the avatara of Vishnu, in his war with the Rakshasa-king of Lanka, Ravana, who had carried off Rama's wife, the beautiful Sita. As advisor to Rama and leader of his army, Hanuman showed unparalleled audacity, wit, and wisdom, thereby accomplishing great feats.

The deep reverence that the Hindus for ages have held for this monkey-being is based on an intuitive, but nevertheless traditional, remembrance of the connection, more intimate than at present, that existed during Atlantean and even Lemurian times between human beings and the apes and even monkeys.

The monkeys, although now static stocks, were originally derivative from Lemurian humanity, just as the anthropoids were later derivatives from miscegenations between undeveloped Atlantean savages and the monkeys of those distant times. Therefore, there is a strain of manas, however as yet undeveloped, in the anthropoid and the simian stocks.

(See also: Hanuman, Hanumat, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Kapila, Kapila-rishi (Sanskrit) A great sage and adept of antiquity who flourished before the middle of the 6th century BC, considered to be the founder of the Sankhya philosophy. These archaic teachers, such as Zoroaster and Hermes, were several in number, it having been a habit in archaic times for the later heads of a school to use the name of the school's founder as their own, the name thus becoming in some cases a title.

Kapila is also one of the three secret kumaras who are the progenitors of the true spiritual self in the physical human being. In many of the old writings Kapila is also symbolic of cosmic spirit, or of the individual spiritual self who represents the highest state reached on earth. Hence the Puranas and the Ramayana relate that Sagara's 60,000 sons were reduced to ashes by a mere glance of Kapila's eye. This allegory symbolizes the personifications of human emotions, both passional and mental, being completely reduced to inactivity by the spiritual wisdom and purity of the sage -- here the personification of wisdom itself.

Kapila is also a primeval sage of the satya yuga who imparted true wisdom to all creatures.

See also SANKYA.

(See also: Kapila, Kapila-rishi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Chandra-vansa candra-vansa (Sanskrit) (from chandra moon + vansa lineage, race)

Also Chandravamsa. The lunar race; one of the two great royal dynasties of ancient India. As related in the Vishnu-Purana, Soma (the moon), the child of the rishi Atri, gave birth to Budha (Mercury) who married Ila, daughter of the other great royal dynasty, the Suryavansa (solar race). Her descendants, Yadu and Puru, founded the two great branches of the Chandravansa (named respectively Yadava and Paurava).

The last important scion of the race of Yadu was the avatara Krishna. In the race of Puru were born Pandu and Dhritarashtra -- parents respectively of the Pandavas and Kurus, the heroes of the Mahabharata enumerated in the Bhagavad-Gita (ch 1).

"In Occultism, man is called a solar-lunar being, solar in his higher triad, and lunar in his quaternary. Moreover, it is the Sun who imparts his light to the Moon, in the same way as the human triad sheds its divine light on the mortal shell of sinful man. Life celestial quickens life terrestrial" (TG 76).

Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is born in the Suryavansa, while Gautama Buddha belonged to the Chandravansa (TG 314).

(See also: Chandra-vansa, candra-vansa, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hanuman or Hanumat (Sanskrit) Monkey-god of the Ramayana. The son of Pavana, god of the winds, or spirit, Hanuman is fabled to have assumed any form at will, wielded rocks, removed mountains, mounted the air, seized the clouds, and to have rivaled Garuda in swiftness of flight.

According to the epic, Hanuman and his host of semi-human monkey-beings became the allies of Rama, the avatara of Vishnu, in his war with the Rakshasa-king of Lanka, Ravana, who had carried off Rama's wife, the beautiful Sita. As advisor to Rama and leader of his army, Hanuman showed unparalleled audacity, wit, and wisdom, thereby accomplishing great feats.

The deep reverence that the Hindus for ages have held for this monkey-being is based on an intuitive, but nevertheless traditional, remembrance of the connection, more intimate than at present, that existed during Atlantean and even Lemurian times between human beings and the apes and even monkeys.

The monkeys, although now static stocks, were originally derivative from Lemurian humanity, just as the anthropoids were later derivatives from miscegenations between undeveloped Atlantean savages and the monkeys of those distant times. Therefore, there is a strain of manas, however as yet undeveloped, in the anthropoid and the simian stocks.

(See also: Hansa-Vahana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Vayu (Sanskrit) Air; one of the five cosmic elements. Personified, the god and sovereign of the air and the king of the gandharvas. Agni, Vayu, and Surya formed the primeval Vedic Trimurti: " 'Agni (fire) whose place is on earth; Vayu (air, or one of the forms of Indra), whose place is in the air; and Surya (the sun) whose place is in the air' [celestial spaces]. (Nirukta.)

In esoteric interpretation, these three cosmic principles, correspond with the three human principles, Kama, Kama-Manas and Manas, the sun of the intellect" (TG 361). These three deities in this connection are three manifestations of cosmic fohat, guided and directed by cosmic mahat.

In later mythology Vayu is the father of Hanuman, the monkey-king who aids Rama in the Ramayana. The allegory of Hanuman becoming the son of Vayu by Anjuna (an ape-like monster) refers to the first glimmering of mind coming into the highest apes through the miscegenation of unevolved late third root-race and early fourth root-race humans with certain simians, themselves the descendants of a previous and parallel origin during an earlier time of the third root-race.

(See also: Vayu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)